This invention relates in general to continuous forms and in particular to continuous forms suitable for making indexes.
When a large number of documents are put together in a collection, for example in a binder, index sheets have been used for classifying the documents into different subject categories or other categories useful to the user. The useful information for identifying and classifying the documents is usually provided on index tabs which protrude from the side of the binder so that a user can get to the documents of interest by simply looking at the information on the index tabs and going right to the documents.
Since documents to be classified and arranged into a collection may differ widely in shapes and sizes, no one size and make of index sheets is adequate for use in all situations. Thus, while ordinarily, documents may be letter or legal size so that standard index sheets of letter or legal size may be adequate, such standard index sheets are no larger adequate if the documents to be classified are longer (such as computer printouts or accounting sheets) or smaller (such as index cards). Furthermore standard index sheets have index tabs along a longer side of the sheet. Instead of having the index tabs on the longer side of documents (one of the 11 inch sides of a letter size document), in some circumstances it may be desirable for the index tabs to be on the shorter side of the documents (that is, one of the 81/2 inch sides).
Standard index sheets have a fixed number of index tabs that span the length of the sheets, and such number is usually fixed at 5, 6 or 8. The number of tabs in a set of index sheets is known as the tab count. The length of the index sheet on which tabs are provided is known as the bank so that the tab count represents the number of tabs per bank. The number of tabs per bank desired for a particular application may be different from that available from conventional index sheets.
Where standard index sheets cannot be used for a particular application for reasons such as those above, the required index sheets will have to be custom made. Index sheets are frequently custom made in printing and office supply shops. However, custom made index sheets are sometimes required only in small quantities and are therefore frequently given a low priority by printers. The user may have to wait for a lengthy turn around time for custom made index sheets. It is therefore desirable to provide ways by which the end user can make its own index sheets tailored for the particular use intended instead of having to rely on either standard index sheets or index sheets custom made by printing shops.